44.
Nowadays, for example, we are conscious of the disproportionate and unruly growth of many
cities, which have become unhealthy to live in, not onlybecause of pollution caused by toxic emissions
but also as a result of urban chaos, poor transportation, and visual pollution and noise. Many cities are
huge, inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of energy and water. Neighbourhoods, even those
recently built, are congested, chaotic and lacking in sufficient green space. We were not meant to be
inundated bycement, asphalt, glass andmetal, anddeprived ofphysical contactwithnature.
45.
In some places, rural and urban alike, the privatization of certain spaces has restricted people’s
access to places of particular beauty. In others, “ecological” neighbourhoods have been createdwhich
are closed to outsiders in order to ensure an artificial tranquillity. Frequently, we find beautiful and
carefullymanicured green spaces in so-called “safer” areas of cities, but not in the more hidden areas
where thedisposable of society live.
46.
The social dimensions of global change include the effects of technological innovations on
employment, social exclusion, an inequitable distribution and consumption of energy and other
services, social breakdown, increased violence and a rise in new forms of social aggression, drug
trafficking, growingdrugusebyyoungpeople, and the loss of identity. These are signs that the growth
of the past two centuries has not always led to an integral development and an improvement in the
qualityof life. Some of these signs are also symptomatic of real social decline, the silent rupture of the
bonds of integration and social cohesion.
47.
Furthermore, when media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop
people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously. In this context, the
great sages of the past run the risk of going unheard amid the noise and distractions of an information
overload. Efforts need to be made to help these media become sources of new cultural progress for
humanity andnot a threat to our deepest riches. Truewisdom, as the fruit of self-examination, dialogue
and generous encounter between persons, is not acquired by a mere accumulation of data which
eventually leads to overload and confusion, a sort of mental pollution. Real relationships with others,
with all the challenges they entail, now tend to be replaced by a type of internet communicationwhich
enables us to choose or eliminate relationships at whim, thus giving rise to a new type of contrived
emotion which has more to do with devices and displays than with other people and with nature.
